As I write this, I'm deaf. Well, not exactly deaf. Not completely. I am without normal hearing. About 10 days ago I flew back from Rochester with an upper respiratory infection I got from a kid who sat behind us hacking and coughing for four hours on the way TO Rochester. The ailment put M to bed . . .
At a time when so many people are popping pills to increase their serotonin levels, I feel lucky. I'm a pretty happy person all the time which means I've got more than enough natural serotonin coursing through my body. It should be illegal to have this much natural energy at this age. After every . . .
Some 10 years ago I spent the better part of a day walking around Vienna--maybe a total of 10 miles. That's Vienna, Austria, so you can understand why I was happy to walk so much. My Ecco shoes seemed up to the task, but ... When I woke up next morning I could barely bear weight on my foot for the . . .
"I blew my knee out skiing," the middle-aged man with dark hair said. He was flipping through a magazine waiting for his physical therapist. "Yeah," the younger guy sitting next to him said, "I torqued my ankle playing lacrosse. Hurts like hell." The two of them looked over at me, expectantly. "I . . .
I made my annual women's health appointment the other day and got an email back inviting me to connect to my doctor's health care portal. There, I can view all of my records and test results, it said. This, my friends, is a hypochondriac's nightmare, don't you think? It's not the first time I've . . .
Maybe like me, you do more sitting around than you did in your youth. After mid-life, many of us complain about the spread that comes from sitting on our rear ends in front of a screen or with a book or two or three. Maybe, like me, you like doing things that are naturally sedentary. Or maybe, like . . .
Tests for dementia traditionally ask certain questions, such as “Who is the president of the United States?”, “Who is the vice president of the United States?” Ok, if you answer Lyndon Johnson or George Bush, there’s a problem. I'll buy that. Those questions are trying to determine if you are . . .
The brain's a bit of a mystery, and these days, so are such things as where we put our keys, the right word and myriad other things. It's as if --after a lifetime of filling--our brain is out of capacity and confused about where we've filed some of this stuff. Imagine, though, if your brain got . . .
This chakra banner hangs on the wall directly across from my bed so I see it every day. And in fact, I lie in bed and my eyes are drawn to it, constantly. Chakra as a term comes from the Sanskrit for wheel and is normally understood as the wheel of life. Perhaps you have wondered what the Seven . . .
I smoked my first joint at 17. I hope you're not shocked. Actually, I don't care if you are and the reason will be clear if you read on. It was the late 1960s and I was introduced to it by a young man who looked like Jesus. That's all I remember. Oh, and that I was a little freaked out that I'd . . .
